Improvement in railway-switches



'ML& 1.w. rELs. Railway-Switches. No. 154,857 Y Patented Sept. 8,1874.

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.THE GRAPHlO CO. PHOTO-TILES 8 44 PARK FLACE,N.Y.

UNITED STATES i PATENT QFFIGE;

MEDARD FELS AND JOHN W. FELS, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT IN RAILWAY-SWITCHES.

Specification forming part of letters Patent No. 154,857, datedSeptember 8, 1874 application filed March 18, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, MEDARD FELS and JOHN W. FELS, both of Cincinnati,Hamilton county, Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin'Railway-Switches, of which the following is a specification:

This invention relates to that class of railway-switches for whichLetters Patent were issued to us July 15, 1873; and the object of ourpresent improvement is to enable cars to operate the, switch in such amanner as to run them either upon the main track or else to be divertedfrom the same into the side or branch track, at the option of the driveror conductor, it being understood that the switch-shifting applianceshave been designed more especially for use upon street-railroads.

In the patent previously alluded to, the cars, if arranged to operatethe switch, would always set it so as to divert them off from the main,route upon the side track, thereby incapacitatin g them for use upon themain road or line. We overcome this objection by an arrangement ofdevices" which'will now be fully described.

Figure 1 is a plan of a railroad-track provided with our improvedswitch, which is set so as to conduct cars along the main route. Fig. 2is another plan of the road, showing the switch changed so as to divertcars off onto the branch or side'track. 'Fig. 3 is a vertical sectionthrough the front part of a car especially adapted to run upon the road,said car being represented as in the act of impinging against one of thetappets that serve to operate the switch. Fig. 4 is an elevation of thefront of saidcar, showing the levers that operate the various devicesfor shifting the switch. Fig. 5 is an enlarged transverse sectionthrough the tongue of the switch and its accessories.

A represents the main route of a street-railroad, and B is a branch Iroute, side track, or turn-out diverging from the same, these two tracksbeing secured to ties or stringers O in the usual manner. As customary,the main route A is composed of two parallel and flanged tracks, D D,while the branch route or turn-out is formed with "two rails, E E. Theselast-mentioned rails are curved, so as to be concentric, and the innerone, E, is

flanged, while the outer one, E, is a flat or unflanged bar. Located atthe junction of the rail E with the one D is a casting or plate, F, towhich is pivoted, at I, the tongue or switch proper, G, that is providedwith a downwardly-projecting lug or pin, g, which engages with one endof a rod, H, disposed transversely of the track. The plate F is slottedat I to receive the pin g, which en gages with the outer end of rod H,whose inner end is pivoted at j to the arm J of a com pound lever orbell-crank, J K L, the latter being fulcrumed at M to one of the ties orother'lnembers of the track, so as to vibrate in a horizontal plane.Coupled to the arm K at k is one end of a connecting-rod, N, whose otherend is attached to the crank 0 of a rockshaft, 0, which is supported insuitable bearings and disposed transversely of the-track A.

The outer end of this rock-shaft is provided with a tappet, P, thatoccupies a groove, q, in a block, Q, the latter being firmly secured tothe inner side of rail D in such a manner as to cause said groove to beparallel with the track. Coupled at l to the other arm, L, of thebell-crank is a connecting-rod, N, which communicates with the arm 0 ofrock-shaft 0, whose tappet P occupies a groove, q, in block Q. s

The car R, which is designed especially to be used upon tracks providedwith the abovedescribed appliances for operating the switch, is arrangedas follows: The front axle S is provided with two customary flangedwheels, 8 s, and, in addition to these, two disks, T T, which rotatefreely upon said axle. Secured to the inner faces of these disks aregrooved hubs t t, for the reception of clutches o v at the ends of abar, V, which is capable of being shifted transversely of the car.-This'shipper-bar is operated by a rod, W, which is pivoted to the underside of the car at w, the forward end of said rod being provided with aslot, w, to receive the lower end of a lever, X. This lever is pivotedto the car at r, and projects upward a sufficient distance above theplatform to be at all times accessible to the driver orconductor of thecar. Abridge,

Y, is secured to the platform of the car, having two notches, y y, intoeither one of which the spring bolt or detent Zof the lever X is adaptedto engage.

To illustrate the operation of our improvements we will suppose the carR to be approaching the junction of the two tracks in the directionindicated'by the arrows in Figs. 1, 2, and 3, and that it is desired torun said car along the main route A without calling upon a switchman toset the tongue G. This result can be accomplished in a moments time bythe driver upon the front platform of the car, who has simply to graspthe handle of lever X and swing it to the right, so as to cause itsdetent Z to engage with the notch y of segment Y. This act shifts thedisk T along the axle S a sufficient distance to insure said diskentering the groove or channel q of the block Q. As soon as theprogressive motion of the carhas brought the disk in contact with theupwardly-projecting tappet P the latter is depressed, thereby causingthe rock-shaft O to perform a partial rotation in its bearings. Theresult of this partial rotation of said shaft is that its crank 0 iscarried around a suflicient distance to shiftthe bell-crank J K Lthrough the instrumentality of connecting-rod N. This bell-crank isshifted in the direction shown in Fig. 1, and, as the rod H imparts acorresponding movement to the tongue G, the latter accordingly swingsupon its pivot I, and, being thrown over to the extreme left side of plate F, allows an unobstructed passage of the car along the tracks D D.The olutch-barV 11 0 and notches y y are so arranged with reference toeach other as to compel the disk T to run clear of the block Q, when theother disk, T, is shifted so as to engage with the groove q of the otherblock,Q. Consequently, after the disk T has escaped from tappet P theother disk, T, cannot impinge against the tappetP so as to close theswitch. To divert the car off into the side track or branch route B theabove-described operation is exactly reversed, the lever X being thrownto the left, thereby engaging its spring-catch Z with notch y andshifting the disk T along the axle S, so as to cause said disk to enterthe groove q and impinge against tappet P. This act shifts the operatingbell-crank J K L and tongue G, as shown in Fig. 2, thereby closingthethoroughfare along track D D and com pelling the car to be switchedoff upon the turnout B E E. This position of the lever X and that of theshifting devices V 'v v and T T are clearly shown in Fig. 4, and it willbe seen, by referring to this illustration, that, while the disk T isimpinging upon the tappet P, the other disk, T, is clear of the box Q,and therefore said disk cannot affect the other tappet, P.

In actual construction the disks T T should be quite thin, so as to runin very narrow grooves in the blocks Q Q, which grooves, being solimited, would not allow a carriage or other wheel to enter them andthereby operate the switch in the wrong direction, or otherwise derangeany part of the apparatus.

The shafts O 0 may be placed in line with each other, if preferred, andthe connectingrods N N be made of uniform length.

All of the operative parts except the tongue G and the two tappets P Pmay be housed in, so as not to be rendered ineffective by dust or dirt,or the accumulation of snow and ice upon them.

Instead of the appliances described in this specification for shiftingthe operating-disks longitudinally of the car-axle, any other suitabledevices may be employed-such, for example, as a screw, or cords passingaround and over suitable rollers.

We claim as our invention- The combination of the switch G g I,connecting-rod H, bell-crank K L M, rods N N,

rock-shafts O O, tappets P P, and grooved I block Q q with the tracks DD E E and disks T T on the car, shiftable by the operator, substantiallyas and for the purposes set forth.

In testimony of which invention we hereunto set our hands. MEDARD FELS.JOHN W. FELS.

Attest:

G o. H. KNIGHT, S. B. SPEAR.

